Press Release
SWINE FLU AND FACTORY FARMS: THE LINK
01 May 2009As the world stands on high alert in anxious anticipation of a Swine Flu pandemic that started in Mexico and could literally affect billions of people worldwide in a matter of months, we cannot ignore the legitimate discourse linking Swine Flu with the indefensible ills of factory farming. This horrendously cruel system of farming has animals by the hundreds or thousands crowded into filthy, windowless sheds, standing in their own excrement and breathing air that is teeming with bacteria, where the throats of, particularly, the pigs' and chickens' are burned by the ammonia from their accumulated waste. These remorselessly intensive and violently abusive rearing conditions are the breeding grounds for virulent and infectious diseases that have the potential to literally alter the course of human history.
The Mexican government says that the origin of the H1N1 strain of flu can be traced to the southeastern state of Veracruz, the site of appalling pig farms. So, is this not another case of a disease jumping from animals to people because of the existence of cruel factory farms which potentially provide the environment to trigger pandemics? Preliminary scientific and on-the-ground evidence strongly suggest that intensive pig production is a key factor in the development of the current devastating Swine Flu outbreak. A study published in 2008 in Livestock Science found that pigs in factory farms were significantly more likely to test positive for Swine Flu (H1N1 and H3N2 virus).
In the last few decades, dozens of new human diseases have emerged as a direct consequence of how we mistreat animals. The greatest change in our relationship with animals, however, has been the way billions are now raised for food around the world. Factory farming has directly led to the emergence of deadly human pathogens including Mad Cow Disease, Strep suis, Nipah virus, multi-drug resistant food-borne bacteria, and highly pathogenic strains of Avian Flu. Swine Flu is merely the latest in a series of major human disease outbreaks with clear links to intensive animal farming.
Says Animal Rights Africa Spokesperson, Steve Smit: "Inevitably, the pig industry leaders are desperate to shake off any guilt and seem wholly concerned with urging the public to keep buying their products for fear of damaging their profits. But a pig industry-induced catastrophe cannot be ruled out in South Africa which has in recent years had its own Swine Flu outbreaks! The public must wake up to the irreducible truth that when animals are oppressed to the extent that they are in today’s animal farming systems, a great many of those animals will be diseased and enfeebled, and that people will also consequently pay a high price."
"Adding to the tragedy that already exists on factory farms is the fact that many thousands of pigs will now be killed as desperate measures to control the Swine Flu outbreak are embarked on. For these pigs, death was always inevitable – it has simply arrived sooner than it would have. Sadly, thousands of additional pigs will now also be bred to replace the "culled" animals in an effort to keep the market supplied and the profits rolling in, and they too will suffer the cruelty of factory farming and the indignity of premature death."
Contact :
Steve Smit (Durban) 082 659 4711
Michele Pickover (Johannesburg) 082 253 2124
E.mail :
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